where wizards fly
and tumblers spring
no need to give them plays to ply
The act is king
The act is the thing

From October 26, 2008
Paul Binder’s profound respect for first-rate circus performers is the reason why, I believe, the one ring show he and Michael Christensen founded 31 years ago has endured in the country’s most competitive market. Now with Binder (and Christensen to follow, it is rumored) stepping down, as first reported in The New York Times, this company is heading into largely uncharted territory virtually never before traveled by an American circus. There is, to be sure, the ominous if minor example of what became of the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco (remember San Francisco?) when a small board of directors that ended up in control of the show self-destructed in the space of a few fitful seasons. Big Apple Circus, on the other hand, has fortified its financial structure into a far more elaborately composed performing arts entity funded and overseen from the top by a board consisting of 35 individuals.
If Binder did not step down on his own accord, who among those thirty five gently nudged him out of the tent -- and why?
Not only is the style of circus Big Apple will produce in the years to come likely to change — for every circus bears the unmistakable imprint of the producer in charge — but the greater question is, will whomever controls its artistic destiny preserve Big Apple as a circus or steer it imitatively in the direction of Cirque du Soleil? That question may have already been answered in the telling appointment of Frenchman Guillaume Dufresnoy — a long time member of the organization and currently its general manager, to replace the outgoing founder.

Replacing Binder may be far more difficult than anyone can predict, for Binder has demonstrated the rare ability to function within the tricky context of a board and of all the nagging social pressures that must come with it. Indeed, we may never know how much his decision to leave was influenced by the myriad conflicts he doubtlessly had to work his way through all these past years just in order to survive at the top. From what I know of the man, he is a world-class diplomat, tactful to a t, and if he is not leaving for the official reasons he has given (among them, to the Times, “I didn't want to do this until I was on my deathbed”), we may never know the actual cause.

Board president Chris Wearing seemed determined to assure Times reporter Glenn Collins that Binder's retirement was not forced, describing it as "not one of those 'move him out and say he'll be doing special projects' things." If Binder will, in fact, be booking acts for the show, then the statement holds some weight. Binder said that his exit had been in the works for several years and that "we wanted to create a cultural institution that would last after me, and now it will."

Now, as for the Big Apple board, without the indisputable artistic authority of a Binder to contain all the schisms within it, it will take a few seasons to see if this group of 35 egos can capably sustain the Binder and Christensen legacy.

The Times report of Binder’s exit at the end of this new season contained implicit indications of mounting concern among the board over direct competition from Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk, soon to begin its second year as a stage fantasy for kids at the Madison Square Garden Theatre. Concerns also about how the crumbling economy could impact ticket sales and fund raising drives; and about ongoing desires, harbored by some in the company, to add a summer season and take the show on tour abroad. As if addressing goals that Binder may have resisted, said Wearing, "There is so much we want to do. We want to extend the show and the season, and develop an endowment."
We will have a good chance, assuming anybody can get their hands on real box office records, to watch two very different forms of circus go head to head in New York, now that Big Apple, sporting what looks like a strong and varied lineup of high class acts, faces off with the more surreally designed Wintuk, a show for the younger set said to be coming back to town in a "revamped" form with new acts, in an effort to bolster a program that left last year’s critics yawningly unimpressed (although none of those reviewers were kids, were they?)

One thing is certain. However much you are a fan or a non-fan of Paul Binder’s act-centric version of a one ring European circus, prepare to see that vision fade into something else — something yet to be known. He and Christensen gave me, in their Picturesque edition, one of the most memorable circus performances I’ve ever experienced around a ring. Such moments are a rarity under any big top in any land.
Farewell, Sir Ringmaster!

[photos credits: Paul Binder, by Andrew Councill for The New York Times; jugglers Michael Christensen and Paul Binder in the early years, by The Big Apple Circus; the show on a lot in the Bronx, 1992, by Librado Romero/The New York Times; Binder with his wife Katja Schumann and children, Max and Katherine, 1993, by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times; Big Apple Circus midway in New York at 50th Street and 8th Avenue, June 7,1978, by Neal Boenzi/The New York Times; Binder, right, with Guillaume Dufresnoy, 1993, by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times; the Ringmaster waits to go on, by Andrew Councill for The New York Times]
10.26.08
5 comments:
Show Biz,
Great Editorial. Thank you. I agree it was one of the nicest classiest shows ever. And until you mentioned about his concern for great performers, It has dawned on me that I have never, ever heard a performer say a negative thing about him, or to make the statement that they got screwed. And he is the only one, I have never heard mentioned in that context. Wow, that in it's self is remarkable. Good Luck Paul. And yes, you will be greatly missed.
Wade Burck
I think all current and upcoming showman need to take a look at Mr. Binder's life and career. I think there is a great deal to be learned from him.
Logan
Paul Binder changed the course of circus history here in America. His impact restored the prestige of the form and reinstated it as high art. He is irreplaceable.
Alan,
Paul was a noble man who treated good performers with class, but WHAT!!!! You got to be kidding me. That's some pretty righteous paper.
Wade Burck
Not to be wet noodle here, but for Wade Burck to say he has "never, ever heard a performer say a negative thing about him or to make the statement that they got screwed", he must not have been listening. Like any show owner/producer/major domo, Binder has his fans and foes. From an outside circus fan point of view, he really is "Mr. Paul, the man who saved the classic American circus". To performers who work in and out of the ring with him, he can be charming or disturbingly irrational. He is now joining fellow founders like Larry Pisoni of Pickle Family, Rob Mermin of Circus Smirkus and Dick Monday of LA Circus in that exculsive club of people who had a dream, set it in motion, depended on the not for profit sector to fund those flights of fancy, and now have to answer to a board of directors who are responsible to a larger concern and not so much to the ego of the founder. A problem Kenneth Feld or his heirs will never have to suffer gladly. as sole owner and keeper of the purse strings.
Joseph Alberto (a fan and insider who's seen both sides)
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